Anybody can build a game for the Ouya. A $99 console with an Android-based platform, Ouya takes the cheapness and ease of mobile gaming and brings it to the television.

Just over a year ago, following an extremely successful Kickstarter that raised more than $9 million in funds, the first Ouya models began arriving in backers’ homes. After an initially lukewarm reception, the console found its niche by appealing to developers and the DIY crowd, aka "makers."

Now its Android development environment, paired with the Ouya team’s constant documentation and support, has made Ouya the choice for 36,000 registered developers—and an additional 1,000 more on average each month.

Gamers who have grown accustomed to playing the same sequels of first-person shooters and racing games year after year were pleasantly surprised by the Ouya marketplace, where just about anything goes. And while most console games cost a standard $60 (on top of consoles that cost hundreds), nearly all of the 920 games offered on the Ouya platform are free to try. It’s a democratic take on the game industry, where both consoles and games are cheap.

I talked to Ouya founder and CEO Julie Uhrman about the console’s first year. We talked about how Ouya found its audience, courted game developers, and encouraged people all over the world to try their hand at game making.

Julie Uhrman, courtesy of Ouya

A Woman, A Plan, A Console

ReadWrite: You started out in investment banking during the first dot-com bubble. How did that shape your view of technology?

Julie Uhrman: (Laughs) It moves really quickly!

But I think the most important thing that I learned is that it doesn’t matter if you have a great product. If your audience isn’t ready for it, it’s not going to succeed.

Finding the balance of the right product, the right time, the right audience is really challenging, and sometimes being first to market isn’t necessarily the right approach. Biding your time and waiting for the right time when the audience is ready for embrace it. That’s when I think you have the biggest chance for success.

RW: When did you first get interested in gaming?

JU: I’ve been a gamer my whole life. I used to write code on my Apple IIe, download games at 9600 baud on the BBS—I was always really excited about it.

After I left investment banking, when I was looking at an industry that I would enjoy, I first and foremost looked at gaming and I was able to get a role with Vivendi Universal Games.

RW: What first inspired you to step away from established companies, found a startup and develop a game console?

JU: I’ve always been an entrepreneur. I’ve always enjoyed building something, creating something important that doesn’t exist today to consumers that will value it.

Before Ouya, I was at IGN running the official distribution business called Direct2Drive and I was witnessing a lot of changes in the industry. The number of console and TV games that were being launched was declining year over year. Mobile was growing exceptionally fast. This was in 2011, 2012. I was witnessing a lot of development studios that were focused on console games closing to reopen as mobile development shops.

Digging into that further, it was really because of the openness of the mobile platform, the ease of which it presented itself to new developers to build the type of game they wanted and to reach gamers more easily. Mobile was also a great discovery platform for gamers. Games are free to try and they’re short. You could enjoy something quickly, or not, and move on to something else.

So I was watching these trends happen, and I came up with a device that was build on Android and wasn’t a mobile phone and had that lightbulb moment: what if we brought the best ideas from the PC and mobile to the console space? What if we built an Android game console for the television that was about being affordable for gamers, and allowing creators of any type access to the number one screen in our lives, which is the television?

RW: How did your decade working in the industry shape what the Ouya would become?

JU: Well it certainly helped that I built strong relationships with different people in the industry — developers, gaming executives, and even gamers. Ouya wanted to be different—open to gamers and developers—and it was conversations with these individuals that helped us shape our offering.

With that in mind it was really easy to build Ouya from the perspective that we were trying to remove as many barriers as possible and make it as easy as possible for developers and gamers to experience one of my first loves—for games on the television.

Ouya Around The World

RW: We’re talking about removing the barriers, and money is one of them. What’s the least amount a developer could spend to develop a game for Ouya?

JU: Assuming you already have a computer, zero.

You download the Ouya SDK [software development kit], build the game on your laptop, upload it to our platform and launch it. You could also buy an Ouya as easily as a development console and build it and publish it directly to Ouya. Ouya’s $99.

And for gamers, the majority of our games are free to try. We wanted games to be accessible. We wanted gamers to love them before they bought them. Today, a majority of our games are free to try. They’re either free with in-app purchases or demos where you can download the full version of the game if you love it. And there are even games that are entirely free.

RW: When did you realize that Ouya had some serious appeal outside the U.S.?

JU: Kickstarter. We shipped Ouyas to over 110 different countries.

It was one of the reasons that, when we launched Ouya, we wanted it to be a global launch. We launched in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. on Day One. Subsequently, we added Western Europe, Brazil, and the Middle East. We added our own international ecommerce shop. Even today, we heard from one of our developers that their game’s been played in 50 different countries.

RW: How did your strategy change as a result to discovering your global audience?

JU: I think the reason that we are embraced globally is because of our strategy, which is an open platform, open ecosystem, and accessibility to the team.

Kellee Santiago runs the developer relations team. She was co-president and founder of That Game Company and partner at the Indie Fund. She is incredibly useful in working with new developers and helping them bring their content to the television. And as a result of that, 54% of our developers are based outside the U.S. as well. So it’s both gamers and developers that are coming to Ouya from all around the world.

RW: What have you learned from the demographics of your developers and your users?

JU: That gaming is global.

When you have an open platform, you can inspire any type of creator, whether they’re a newcomer or an established developer, to bring their best content to the television. Because the television is an incredibly powerful medium to build a game.

RW: Is the Ouya looking to expand into other languages?

JU: Today we support five languages—English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. We support three currencies—the dollar, the Euro, and the pound.

We’re focusing a lot of our attention on Asia and that market given the interest there is for the platform and our games.

RW: Tell me about some of the highlights from Ouya’s first year.

JU: Sure. When we launched, we had a little over 170 games. Today, we have over 850 games. We started with a little less than a thousand developers. Now we have 36,000 registered developers. We have a developer Matt Thorson who launched his game TowerFall on Ouya, and after that it was picked to be one of the launch titles on the Playstation 4 indie channel. Developers are finding and building their community on the Ouya and leveraging that to grow their audience on other platforms, and I think that’s a phenomenal development for Ouya.

Even recently, we’re starting to see a significant increase in the number of alphas and betas on the platform. Developers are coming to Ouya first to test their ideas and get feedback from the community, improve the game, and then launch it when it’s ready.

Ouya’s gone from being a console where people publish final games to a platform where makers can come and create games. Ouya’s really leaning into that now as we try to focus more on makers. We’re providing more tools and documentation and videos to enable anybody to be a game creator.

RW: Which niche was the Ouya intended to fill, and which niche does it actually fill?

JU: Ouya’s always been intended to be an open platform. I think when any new platform gets to market you get the established player to first understand the space and embrace it early, but it was always our goal to be a place for any maker or creator to build a game for the television.

It’s taken us time to build the tools and the documentation. Unity, for example, is a great tool for developers to build games. We’ve integrated with them and twelve other middleware solutions, and are starting to build our own documentation and how-to videos for early developers.

I think it’s clear when you look at the UI [user interface] of the Ouya, on the top main navigation screen “Make” is one of the channels. It’s not just about playing games, it’s about making games. We put that front and center and now we’re really able to build that out more.

Making A Maker Platform

RW: Ouya has found an audience with new and indie game developers. How are you working on catering to that audience?

JU: We have a team of four in our content and developer relations team that works very hard to get out in front of developers, whether it’s going to events or holding our Google Hangout every single week, to responding to email requests, to literally working directly with hundreds of developers.

My team has worked with over 300 developers, reviewing their builds, giving feedback on their games and their monetization strategies. Then, once launched, we work hard to market and promote those games for them. I think developers see us as a real partner.

RW: There’s growing competition in the indie-gaming space, from high-end systems like Steam (forthcoming, at least) to game-friendly TV streaming boxes like the Amazon Fire TV and Android—even, perhaps, Sony’s PlayStation TV. Where does a console like Ouya fit in this world, and what challenges does it present you?

JU: We’re excited to see others entering this space. Other entrants so far have helped us. It’s great to broadens the audience for developers, and give gamers access to games where they are, and not necessarily force them to buy a particular piece of hardware to enjoy games on the television.

RW: What makes a console developer friendly?

JU: I think it’s everything that we do.

I think it’s about having a team of ex-developers that really understands what it takes to build, market, and launch a game. I think it’s about having documentation and support material to help those that aren’t as knowledgeable or educated about building a game. I think it’s about being accessible to developers—and accessible on their terms, whether it’s email, Google Hangout, or at events—being approachable. And that’s what I think Ouya’s really about.

RW: With an audience into DIY, how does the Ouya avoid legal trouble through emulators, jail breaking, hacking and rooting the console?

JU: Ouya is an open console. You can open it up, play with it, and it doesn’t void your warranty.

We do not allow emulators to have content. We protect the IP rights of our content owners. If any game or application should infringe on that, it does not get released. Ouya has a set of content guidelines. We do a light review of games and apps before they get launched on Ouya. We want to make sure it is a good experience for gamers and we want to make sure there is no IP infringement, malware, pornography, or anything like that.

RW: Some of my favorite Ouya games are by professional standards, frankly amateur. How does Ouya decide what makes a “good experience” for gamers?

JU: When we review games, we want to make sure not only does it meet our content guidelines but that it’s a good experience for gamers. That means there’s no gameplay issues, text doesn’t go off the screen, it works well with the game controller, if there’s a monetization component it works, but we don’t review games to provide judgement if it is a good game. That’s really up to the gamer. We encourage all developers to make their games free to try so that gamers can make up their mind if they love a game before they purchase it.

RW: Ouya recently announced the AIDE [Android Integrated Development Environment] initiative. How does teaching kids to code fit into Ouya’s big picture?

JU: Ouya’s always been about being open. We’ve always believed that if you have an open platform, the most creative, unique, amazing content will surface. Creating AIDE for Ouya is just one additional step in supporting our goal to be incredibly open.

It teaches anyone—kids or adults—to make games. You’ll be able to hook up a keyboard and mouse to Ouya. You’ll be able to make games and publish them on the platform. We’re also talking with our current developers because the best way to learn is to have a great teacher and so we’re trying to encourage our developers to participate in this program and to help us shape the AIDE initiative as it begins to take form.

RW: I know the initiative is just getting started, but ideally, what’s it going to look like a few months from now?

JU: If you have Ouya or Ouya is on your device, you’ll go into the “Make” channel to take tutorials on how to build games. You’ll see how-to videos and documentation. You’ll have all the elements you need to start learning to code to build a game.

RW: You mentioned that kids as well as adults can learn to program games for Ouya. Can you tell me an anecdote about an especially young developer?

JU: When we launched last year, one of our developers was an eight-year-old boy. He built a game called Astronaut Rescue. He was skiing in Tahoe with his father and broke his leg, and after being bedridden, his dad said, “You can’t stay inside the whole time playing games.” So he said, “OK, I want to make a game.”

He said he wanted to build a game for the television because he didn’t want to have his friends huddled over a mobile phone trying to play it. So he and his dad together built a game for Ouya and worked closely with my teammate, Tim Graupmann, to optimize it for Ouya. They were a launch title on Ouya. They were at E3 demoing the game for press and for gamers. And he’s made money.

We have an eight-year-old and that’s just his first attempt at making a game. Just imagine what his games will be like when he’s ten or 15 or 20.

RW: What are the Ouya team’s primary focuses for the year ahead?

JU: We want to continue to grow our community and grow our library of games. Today we have over 850 games and 36,000 developers and we want to continue to bring great content that’s compelling and unique to the Ouya platform. Obviously a big focus of Ouya is helping beginning developers learn how to make games and we want to be the platform they go to first.

Also we’re really focused on extending the reach of Ouya through our Ouya Everywhere strategy, which is to take our marketplace and put it on other devices, so you don’t only have to buy Ouya to play the games that are in the Ouya marketplace.

RW: You said “Gaming is global.” Was this a hypothesis Ouya has confirmed?

JU: I think the market has shifted. Games used to be local in nature. What was most successful in the U.S. was not what was most successful in Europe and was not successful in Asia. You start to see this changing with Angry Birds and, more recently, Candy Crush and Flappy Bird. You can build a game that has universal global appeal.

Building games on Android, and requiring only an HDMI connection to a television, really means your products can be available anywhere and to any gamer.

RW: What kind of changes would you personally like to see in the gaming industry?

JU: I love seeing more devices coming to market that are supporting games. I’d love to see more companies support game development by encouraging creators and the Maker Movement. When that happens, I think that’s when we’ll find something really special.

Having appeased its core crowd of PlayStation gamers (so far, anyway), Sony is looking to cram everyone else into the proverbial living room—all while doling out more goodies to its devotees. At this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the company revealed plans to release a new version of its PlayStation “micro-console” in North America later this year.

Although the PlayStation TV looks like just yet another $99 Web TV box, looks may be deceiving. Depending on what you want out of your streaming thing of choice, Sony’s PS TV packs more bells and whistles than much of the competition and—should it live up to its pre-release hype—stands to please hardcore, casual and perhaps even non-gamers alike.

Let's take a look at how it stands up to its current competition.

Sony PlayStation TV: $99

The PlayStation TV (PS TV) is a handsome little streaming box with a lot going on. The tiny gaming console doesn't need to connect to a PlayStation 4, but if you own one, it will enable you to beam your PS4 play to a different TV in the house—a pretty neat trick for settling battles over sofa real estate.

The PS TV will make good use of Sony's upcoming PlayStation Now cloud gaming network, with plants to support "hundreds" of PS3 titles as well as most PS Vita titles and PS1 and PSP classic games, thanks to the respectable specs it shares with the PlayStation Vita handheld console. Beyond that, the PS TV is expected to come equipped with streaming stalwarts like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, TuneIn and others, all already available on the handheld PS Vita, though its broader multimedia talents have yet to be confirmed.

The console works with PlayStation DualShock 3 or DualShock 4 controllers, and will sell as a standalone device or as a $139 bundle that includes a DualShock 3 controller, an 8GB memory card, and a virtual copy of the Lego Movie Videogame.

Amazon Fire TV: $99

For living room streaming, the Fire TV is a compelling, if standard, choice. Naturally, it works best in Amazon’s own ecosystem with Amazon Instant Video, but it also stocks the now-standard streaming line-up (Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube, Pandora, Vevo, etc.).

With its own custom-designed gaming controller (sold separately for $40), the Fire TV might be the only other an hybrid media streaming/gaming box that can be taken seriously. Still, you'll mostly be stuck with mobile games you could play on a tablet, like Minecraft Pocket Edition. Amazon is working on more original gaming content like Sev Zero, so that's something to keep in mind.

Roku 3: $89

Technically, the Roku 3 lets you play games with its motion sensing remix of a classic remote, but with a limited selection and no dedicated controller, the feature comes off as an afterthought. For streaming TV and video, the Roku remains an elegant choice—for gaming though, not so much. Roku also sells the pared-down Roku Stick for $49, but you won't be doing any motion gaming on it.

Apple TV: $99

The Apple TV still makes plenty of sense for anyone neck-deep in Apple's iTunes and App Store ecosystems. Unless Apple ups its gaming game (and it may), the only way to "play" games on the device is to play compatible titles on an iPad, iPod or iPhone and mirror them on the big screen via AirPlay.

Ouya: $99

The Kickstarted Android-based box was an enthusiastic experiment in indie console gaming, but these days, things aren't looking so good. The Ouya comes with a dedicated controller and lets you hack stuff like Netflix onto it, but in 2014, it's purer in theory than execution.

Steam Machine: Price variable, starting at around $549 (Alienware) up to $6,000

Valve's small army of third-party Steam consoles, now delayed until 2015, will run SteamOS and offer a custom controller for its stable of major league, console-level digital games. While the goal of emancipating PC gaming from the PC is noble enough, the pricing makes any Steam Box a truly niche device for dedicated console-averse PC gamers.

Google Chromecast : $35

If you want a price can't be beat and just need the core set of streaming entertainment apps, there is no reason whatsoever to not buy a Chromecast. It's $35 and streams music and video from a growing selection of compatible mobile apps to your TV, but it's no game console.

The PS TV looks to set a new bar among streaming boxes with smaller dreams, but we'll have to see it to believe it. Unfortunately, that means waiting until this fall while Sony builds out PlayStation Now and refines its little micro-console.

ReadWriteReflect offers a look back at major technology trends, products and companies of the past year.

Real companies making real products that real people, you know, spend real money on. That's what ReadWrite predicted would be the hottest of hot startups in 2013 and, for the most part, we were right.

2013 showed us new hardware built by smaller companies for what seems like the first time in a long time. They were birthed from places like Kickstarter and delivered (almost) as promised. The Pebble smartwatch had its humble origins on the crowdfunding platform and so did the top startup on our list, Ouya. Leap Motion promised to change how we interact with computers and got off to a pretty good start in accomplishing that goal.

Snapchat may be a company with no revenue and an unrealistic valuation, but it is changing the way people think of messaging. This has power, even if it is another one of those smoke & mirror San Francisco startups that ultimately dies off in a few years. Or it could be the next Facebook. Time will tell.

While there are certainly still products and services fetching big price tags with little to no revenue, the majority of companies in our year-end roundup are building products that will have an impact on how we think about technology. The hottest startups may not have been in enterprise and business-to-business channels (through companies like Parse, StackMob were acquired and Dropbox is growing like gangbusters), but the big business startup market performed well this year.

Startups abounded in every sector. Humanized robots are making headlines. Machine and home automation, 3D printing and "smart manufacturing" are all of a sudden popular. Hack stars making app development and learning to code easier are abundant. Evolution and innovation continue in 2013, unabated and unafraid.

Here's our list of 10 of the top small companies that helped define the ever burgeoning startup industry in 2013.

Ouya

Ouya is an open source Android-based gaming platform that is looking to compete with PlayStation and Xbox. It was a Kickstarter success, and the anything-goes game system appeals to gamers and developers alike.

As Lauren Orsini pointed out in her review this year, “Today’s gaming landscape is shrinking, filled with increasing DRM limits that keep us from fully owning the games and consoles we thought we bought.” Which makes the Ouya game system that gives players unlimited ability to hack and build software and games to their liking, a leg up on other gaming platforms.

CyanogenMod

The custom Android ROM company that has found favor with hackers and hobbyists is looking to become the next mobile operating system. CyanogenMod can reboot your Android’s OS, improving memory, features and the operation of the device. The company picked up $23 million in additional funding and now boasts over 11 million active users.

CyanogenMod is looking to become more mainstream and announced its first device partnership earlier this year with Oppo, a Chinese hardware manufacturer.

Unbounded Robotics

Unbounded Robotics is a spinoff of robotics studio Willow Garage, makers of the PR2, which was, at its time, the country’s most sophisticated robot. Unbounded Robotics new UBR-1 (pronounced Uber One) is the latest and greatest of humanoid robots.

The one-armed robot fetches a $35,000 price tag, and in the world of robotics, is relatively inexpensive. Unbounded Robotics is paving the way of robotic development and the UBR-1 could be the granddaddy of your in-home future robot.

Leap Motion

Leap Motion, the device that lets you control a computer interface with hand gestures, is ideal for gaming and design and also lets you explore cities or the environment via Google Earth and other apps. The gadget is three inches long and plugs into your computer through its USB port.

The Leap Motion Controller tracks your hands and fingers, and is hypersensitive to movements including pinching, grasping and swiping. This year, the company partnered with HP and plans on embedding the motion-control technology on future HP devices. Leap Motion retails for $79.99, so it’s an inexpensive way to begin experimenting with gesture-controlled technologies.

Snapchat

Source: Snapchat

The ephemeral messaging service launched itself into the hearts of teens everywhere and was, in large part, a driver of the competitive messaging trend. Snapchat lets users send disappearing photos and videos to friends. However, the messages aren’t entirely deleted from the server.

Snapchat made waves earlier this year when the company reportedly rebuffed a $3 billion acquisition attempt from Facebook and $4 billion from Google. The public scoffed at the startup led by 23-year-old cofounder Evan Spiegel dismissing billion-dollar buyouts when his company has zero revenue, but with the red-hot messaging market growing in 2014, Snapchat might prove the naysayers wrong.

IFTTT

IFTTT=If This Then That. The service is a productivity tool that combines a variety of APIs to enable your online accounts to communicate with each other. IFTTT is built on channels—or different platforms and services that can send and receive triggers and actions—the if and then requests.

IFTTT users can create “recipes” that connect different channels; for instance, a recipe can save all your favorite tweets to Evernote, email you every Instagram photo tagged from a certain location, or turn on lights in your home at sunset.

Right now IFTTT has 71 channels, but it’s likely the company will support hundreds connected services with open APIs soon.

SmartThings

Readers who have been following our coverage of the connected home might recognize SmartThings. The home automation platform lets users control their homes from a mobile device. Whether it’s unlocking the door, turning on the lights, or setting a thermostat, SmartThings simplifies home automation.

The company has its roots in crowdfunding; it raised over $1 million on Kickstarter in 2012, more than four times its original goal. As more people begin to adopt connected home technologies, SmartThings, popular with early adopters, could become one of the leaders in its field.

Homejoy

The affordable cleaning company provides house cleaning for just $20 an hour. Homejoy is now in over 30 cities nationwide, and backs its services with a guarantee that if you’re not satisfied with the job, it will re-clean it for free.

Coin

The controversial startup aims to simplify in-person transactions. Coin puts the information from all your credit cards into one digital credit card that has a button on the card to switch payment forms. The idea behind Coin is that people have too many credit cards that take up space in wallets and are often forgotten at home or in stores. Coin eliminates both problems by storing credit card information on the smart card and alerting users via push notifications that their Coin was left behind.

Some pundits have dubbed Coin “vaporware”, as the product is still in its development phase, but the company promises to start shipping the cards next summer. Coin is available to pre-order now for $100.

Medium

Twitter cofounders Ev Williams and Biz Stone created another content distribution platform, this time letting users write more than 140 characters. Medium, the blogging site that got all the best online writers to forget about their personal blogs, became exceedingly popular this year. Originally an invite-only platform, Medium opened up to everyone in October.

There is some controversy over whether or not you own the content you write for Medium. But Ev Williams told ReadWrite that the company requires the right to display content, but it does not take ownership of what's published.

It will be interesting to see what the company does with the quality writing generated on Medium. Whether or not the company turns into a publication remains to be seen, but the high-quality content published on the site keeps me coming back.

Correction, Jan. 6, 2014:

A previous version of this article incorrectly described Medium's treatment of copyright. It does not own the content that you publish on the platform, but has the right to use it for as long as it is published on the site.

Today, the high-resolution glitz of E3 takes a backseat to an unusual, lesser appreciated side of gaming. Who needs a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One when you can get your hands on the underdog challenger console Ouya, starting today?

Since Ouya makes it easy for anyone to develop their own game for free, there’s a huge variation in the levels of quality you’ll encounter. You’re probably not going to find the next big budget AAA game, like Last of Us, on Ouya. But you just might find the next indie hit like Limbo. Ouya is a marketplace for indie games to thrive.

I’ve had my Ouya for a week now. In that time, I’ve found some diamonds, but just keep in mind they’re all homebrew diamonds in the rough. Here are six of my favorite picks, all available in the Ouya Discover store right now.

Hidden in Plain Sight

What makes Hidden so addictive is a shocking twist on the one part of gaming we usually take for granted - knowing which avatar on the screen is supposed to be the player. In this simple-but-tense timed multiplayer, gamers must first find their avatars. This is a lot harder than it sounds, especially when there are 30 identical ninja avatars walking around the screen. Hidden’s 16-bit graphics only enhance the difficulty.

On Ouya, you can play two of Hidden’s scenarios for free indefinitely. If you want more, you can unlock three other modes of play for a donation of $0.99 or more.

The Secret of Universe Alpha

Blunt graphics (pictured above) and booming dubstep remind you this game was made in somebody’s spare time. But its gameplay - complete with world exploration, dungeons, puzzles and challenging boss battles - harkens instead to everything that was good about our favorite 90s platformers. In Universe Alpha, you are an explorer making first contact with aliens, shooting down bad guys and charting the literal center of the universe.

Developed exclusively for Ouya by Dreamzle, you can download Universe Alpha in its entirety for free on Ouya Discover.

Polarity

This game is a bit more refined than the others on this list. That’s because there’s a seasoned developer behind it. Craig Littler has worked on dozens of other games, but never had a game of his own. So he took advantage of the Ouya’s open development to build one of the console’s first exclusives, a first person puzzler in the spirit of Portal.

In Polarity, you’re a hacker navigating a visual vault, with blocks and two modes of polarity (depicted in red and blue) to solve a series of levels. It’s simple, but addicting. Play the first level free, or unlock the full game for $4.99.

Fist of Awesome

This is only a demo, but it’s already worth it for the laughs. In this spiritual successor to Streets of Rage, you are Tim Burr, a time-traveling lumberjack armed only with his abnormally large fist. Punch bizarro-world bears who seem partially perplexed, partially enraged that you’re not behind bars at the Human Zoo where you belong. Come for the mesmerizing pixel art, stay for absurd fighting sound effects like “Fist!”

Fist of Awesome began as a Kickstarter project, but reached double its original funding goal in December. The full game will be available on Ouya this summer.

Riding Rhodri

How's this for some video game character diversity? Here, you play as a Rhodri, a handicapped boy in a wheelchair. Rhodri can't jump, but power-ups all over the level do the jumping for you. Navigate a pastel dreamscape while avoiding spikes and picking up keys. Combined with simplistic gameplay and mesmerizing background music, it's more relaxing than challenging.

As Ouya games go, Riding Rhodri is particularly long with 36 levels and four boss levels, making it an easy buy for $2.50. The first level is already unlocked.

No Brakes Valet

This is my personal favorite, because it’s so dumb, so simple, and so uproariously funny, there’s no way it would have been approved on any other platform. Portrayed by graphics that appear to have been conceived in MS Paint, No Brakes Valet’s clumsy controls are part of the fun. You’ll be lucky if you can successfully park a single car. As the creator, Justin Smith, describes it, “This game is out of order.”

No Brakes Valet comes in both one and two-player mode and is always free. With those graphics and controls, I’m not sure you’d pay for it otherwise.

A few weeks before our Ouya arrived in the mail, my husband was having second thoughts. Like 63,416 others, he’d eagerly parted with his cash (in his case, a cool $225 for the limited edition color and name plate etching), during the throes of Kickstarter hype around the open source Android-based gaming platform.

Months later and still no Ouya, he was wondering if he’d made the right choice. He wondered why I, the usually-trusty voice of reason against BioShock Infinite Collector’s Edition pre-orders and Magic: The Gathering rares, hadn’t spoken up.

“Now, I kind of wish you’d talked me out of it,” he said.

But (maybe since I didn’t lose any money on the deal), I was more excited for the Ouya than ever. Un-piqued by June’s monotonous E3 lineup, I was ready for something new.

As it turned out, we didn’t have long to wait. When we returned from vacation, a tiny box from China had beat us home. Even though we couldn’t agree on the pronounciation (Me: Wee-yah; Him: Oy-yah; Actual: Ooh-ya), we opened it right away.

Inside, we found an even tinier box in “rich brown brushed metal.” How small was it? Well, since fruit is such a reliable unit of console measurement, here’s our Ouya with a banana for scale.

But neither of our lifetimes of console gaming fully prepared us for what was really inside.

An “Anything Goes” Sandbox

There’s a reason the Ouya Kickstarter was the first ever to make $8 million. It promised a gaming experience that was as much for developers as for players. And on that selling point, it looks like it has delivered.

Ouya’s biggest strength would be a weakness to any other console of this generation - it’s got zero quality control. Just by browsing Ouya Discover (the console’s store), I’ve played games with 3D engines and games that look like they were made in MS Paint.

In other words, you’ll find games on Ouya that you won’t see anywhere else because big companies don’t want to risk their budgets on the weird stuff. They stick with what works and what sells, so you can always expect lots of stubbly white male protagonists navigating war zones. Meanwhile, Ouya exclusives include unusual concepts like Soul Fjord, a combination of Norse mythology and 70s funk. Really.

Since nothing’s been tested and developers are playing by ear. Many games, including pixelated side-scroller Fist of Awesome and rhythmic shooter Dub Wars, are trials that link to Kickstarters of their own. Just like Ouya wants you to consider your console the beta version, it’s sometimes the same with the games you can play on it.

Likewise, you can start developing your own games on Ouya for free. You can download development tools and even get feedback on your in-progress projects for nothing.

Legal Troubles Ahead?

When you buy a Ouya, you’re buying complete ownership - the ability to hack, crack and root your console to your liking. With that kind of freedom, it’d be naive to assume owners won’t try anything legally dubious. And sure enough, they already have.

Ouya Discover abounds with free emulators, software that mimics the functions of other consoles. Gamers can use them to play homebrew games meant for older systems, such as the Super Nintendo. But aside from legal uses, gamers can also use emulators to play pirated copies of hard-to-find games.

On the left is a photo I took of one of the emulators available, designed to play PlayStation 1 games. While emulators inhabit a legal gray area as a whole, these uncredited screenshots are undoubtedly illegal.

Ouya’s creators are fully aware of the emulator/piracy connection, revealed in an interview with Kotaku. Ouya’s official response is that it won’t accept store submissions of emulators that come with games, nor will it accept submitted ROMs of games.

However, the Ouya’s major selling point is, once again, that you can do anything you want with it. It’s only a matter of time before piracy finds a way. Since the Ouya has a USB port, I've already thought of one option - sideloading games from a flash drive.

Can It Compete?

I’ve had a lot of fun playing with the Ouya. But as we near its June 25 release date, is it something worth buying over a mainstream console?

Quality-wise, it’s no replacement for the PlayStation 3, or in some cases, even the Nintendo 64. Since so many games are indie and homebrew, there’s no guarantee you’ll have good-looking graphics or, in some cases, even controls that work.

For some longtime gamers, this may be a small price to pay. Today’s gaming landscape is shrinking, filled with increasing DRM limits that keep us from fully owning the games and consoles we thought we bought. In this kind of world, the Ouya is a respite.

As for my husband, I don’t think he’s regretting the Ouya anymore. We’ve either played with it or showed it off to friends for four nights straight.

Still, in a few short months it'll be the holiday season and E3's offerings will all be released. It's hard to say if by that point, the Ouya will be gathering dust in the back of a closet while we make room for a shiny new PS4.

After a longer-than-expected wait, some shipping glitches, and a good deal of anticipation, my open-source, crowd-funded, cloud-gaming, Android-powered Ouya game console arrived in Friday's mail. I unpacked the box, plugged it in, and fired it up. After 24 hours, I've come to some conclusions about the device – though I can't say they're all positive.

Ouya: Out Of The Box

The Console: The first thing I noticed about the console itself was its size. The thing is small – about the size of a Rubik's Cube. With no optical drive or expansion slots, there's no reason for the device to be any bigger, but it was still a little jarring. It's also pretty idiot-proof. Plug in the included power adapter and HDMI cable, press the only button on the device, and you're ready to get started.

The Controller: The controller was reputed to be the system's crown jewel, and overall, it's a success. The pop-off panels for accessing the dual battery compartments seem a little insecure at first, and I would have preferred a more traditional hinged compartment on the back, but the Ouya design seems rigid enough once everything is snapped together, and it's probably cheaper to fix, down the line.

Other than that, the pad, sticks and buttons worked as planned, the controller fit my average-sized hand nicely, and I was able to forget about controls and focus on the games immediately. And that's really the point. I found it worlds more comfortable than any Sony controller, and somewhat more natural than the Xbox 360's. If this controller shipped with a next-gen system, I wouldn't be upset.

Ouya Setup

The hardware was great, and pairing the controllers was straightforward. When I logged into my account, though, the Ouya's Kickstarter roots started to show. Setup went smoothly enough, but even a little documentation might have been nice. The box included only an FCC-mandated warning: no manual or diagrams. The log in process was simple, but to retrieve the username I'd registered months ago, I had to swap to my laptop and Google "Ouya username retrieval." An inline "Retrieve Username" next to the "Lost Password" link in the setup screen wouldn't have been terribly hard to add.

With any luck, that retail units will ship with more documentation and a smoothed-out interface. As an early backer, a reviewer and someone who'd like to see this type of project succeed, I didn't really care, but the Best Buy set is accustomed to a higher level of hand-holding.

The Ouya UI

Once you're logged in, the Ouya interface is pretty clean, but there aren't too many more positives worth noting. It's tough to make four menu items a jumble, but Ouya somehow succeeded. The designers may have been trying a bit too hard to make things cool.

The menu items:

PLAY: Play the games you’ve downloaded. Simple enough.

DISCOVER: This is the Ouya app store. DISCOVER is a horribly awkward list of downloadable games, with confusingly named sub-menus (What’s the difference between CHECK IT, STAFFPICKS, and FAVS, anyway?). The GENRES section is more useful, but it reveals an unfortunate lack of content designed for the device. As of the weekend, there were only six games in the DUAL STICK category and only three applications in APPS.

MAKE: Information for software developers that really doesn’t belong in a main menu.

MANAGE: System configuration.

I get what Ouya was going for, but everything abut the interface screams BETA, and it wouldn't have been that hard to do it right. Drop me straight into PLAY, provide a prominent link to the store, and link to games that are related to the one I'm currently playing. Hide the rest somewhere boring. Done.

Some of the gaps should get filled when more titles become available, but that list is likely to to see a lot of static. The bar is pretty low for Android games, so not every entry will be up to par for console games.

That's where some content curation could help. Branded channels (e.g., something by IndieCade or one of the gaming mags) could really help users find games worth playing. So could a healthy peer rating system and some filtering based on past ratings. The good news is that all of this can be fixed in software. The bad news is that the retail release date is coming up fast.

never made it past the loading screen and forced a hard reset), but there's certainly no "must-have" franchise Ouya title yet.

Final Fantasy III: What about Final Fantasy III? If you've played the Android version on other devices, you know what you're getting. If you played the original version 20 years ago, it's a refreshing trip down memory lane. FFIII offers Game Boy mechanics with 3D graphics: think Pokemon Stadium on the N64 compared to Pokemon Yellow and Red. Younger gamers without an appreciation of history will probably get bored very fast. It's great to see a major studio throw some weight behind the Ouya, but this game is not a kingmaker.

The Ouya Verdict

I think the gaming industry needs a kick in the pants, and I'm glad to have helped support the Ouya's attempt to provide it. I have hopes that in time, the Ouya can provide exposure to indie game developers, add playability to Android games that could really use a solid controller and function as a valid over-the-top box for Netflix and other TV apps.

As a geek and freedom fighter, I think my money was well-spent. If I were a parent on a shopping mission or hardcore gamer looking for a fix, though, the Ouya just doesn't deliver. If you're looking for anything resembling a AAA-title gaming experience, your $99 would be better spent on a used Xbox 360 or a new video card for your gaming computer.

I think Ouya has the potential to fix the bugs and round out its stable of apps and games to make a really viable complement to traditional consoles, but the company needs to move fast, before gamers decide to move on.